Beijing.
As the city was at the middle point of the party’s journey to Mt. Baekdu, it wasn’t that far of a trek for the procession.
However, that didn’t mean that it wouldn’t be difficult.
“It’s still as horrifyingly impressive as ever.”
They found themselves back at Qingdao, the city that had been turned into cubes of ice, with a vast river tributary that lay in their path.
Fortunately, Liu Bei hadn’t begun this journey without any preparations.
"Get in!"
As the direct descendant of the previous general secretary, he seemed to know many things about things along the way and many things they could make use of. Ships that hadn’t been there when Lee Jun-Kyeong and his party had passed this area were sitting anchored in the river.
“The Hunters will distribute themselves among the ships, and as for the giants…”
“We will handle our own crossing.”
The giants seemed to have their own method of crossing the river.
Lee Jun-Kyeong and his party also divided themselves among several ships in order to protect the ordinary humans from any possible underwater attacks.
"Fenrir. Are you sleepy?" Lee Jun-Kyeong asked the boy sitting next to him.
"Slee…py…”
After the battle with the king, Fenrir, who had initially slept quite a bit, seemed to fall asleep more frequently and for more extended periods. Lee Jun-Kyeong had a guess as to what had caused the change.
‘Is he undergoing growth?’
The seal must have been slowly releasing, restoring the wolf closer to his incredible might.
Apparently, the wolf was fatigued in order to accommodate that power.
Lee Jun-Kyeong stroked Fenrir's head gently, careful not to disturb his sleep. The boy's long white hair gently shook from Lee Jun-Kyeong’s hand.
Groan!!
Before they knew it, the ship had departed and began to course through the river quickly. While it wasn’t as fast as Fenrir, Lee Jun-Kyeong had no issues with it because this was a much safer path.
“Wow.”
"Oh my God."
"Did the giants really have that ability?”
Then, people were cheering as they looked at the river. Although they had been with the giants for close to two years, this was the first time they had seen this side of the giants.
Boom! Boom!
They were walking through the river.
Regardless of how big they were, they weren’t so large that they could have reached the bottom of the river, so it was a mystery as to how they could walk across the river.
The people cheered in wonder at their appearance.
“It’s Galdr.”
However, Lee Jun-Kyeong knew how they were doing it.
They were using momentary explosions of mana every time they stepped down in the river.
‘I can’t believe that’s even possible.’
Lee Jun-Kyeong had also learned Galdr and also understood its principles, but was very ignorant of the methods to utilize it. Once he saw that there was that sort of a method for usage, his expression got much better.
"Mr. Lee."
"Guan Yu."
Someone approached Lee Jun-Kyeong, and as Jeong In-Chang and Won-Hwa were on different ships, there was only one person on the boat that was able to speak to him.
He nodded in greeting and looked over at the giants.
“It really is amazing."
“...”
The two stood, watching the giants without a word.
Guan Yu looked over at Lee Jun-Kyeong and asked carefully, “How is it that you are so strong?”
The two brothers had followed Liu Bei and came to find Lee Jun-Kyeong in the Nar’s stronghold. At that time, Lee Jun-Kyeong had asked them for a spar, which they had gladly accepted.
However, the results had been disastrous.
They had thought that they would have been able to fight back to some extent, but it had been completely different from before.
They had lost without even being able to last for five minutes against Lee Jun-Kyeong.
“We already knew that you were able to use internal qigong.”
Guan Yu was one of the Chinese Hunters who was able to use internal qigong.
“And…we know that you also know the giant’s Galdr.”
There was something glimmering in Guan Yu’s eyes.
“We also had tried to teach the Nar internal qigong and also learn Galdr ourselves, but at least for the Galdr, we were completely unable to control it. So I would like to become strong.”
Guan Yu saluted Lee Jun-Kyeong, bowing towards him with his fist clasped in his palm.
“Can you tell me your secret?”
Lee Jun-Kyeong responded firmly, "I'm sorry."
"As expected… No, it’s nothing. I overstepped. I’m sorry to have troubled you,” Guan Yu apologized and turned back over to the giants again.
After a moment of awkward silence, Lee Jun-Kyeong piped up, “You most likely won’t be able to learn Galdr. I understood it when I learned it myself. For anyone who’s not me…it’ll be difficult to learn Galdr. It would be the same for you as well, Mr. Guan Yu.”
Lee Jun-Kyeong hadn’t refused just because he didn’t want to tell him.
“Furthermore, Mr. Guan Yu, you won’t need to learn it anyway.”
Lee Jun-Kyeong continued, advising Guan Yu, who aspired to be strong.
“Wasn’t there some Chinese saying or another? All roads lead to one.”
“Wàn liú guī zōng…”
“As long as you train your internal qigong enough, you’ll end up being able to use a skill similar to the Galdr. No…you’ll be able to use something even stronger than that.”
Guan Yu raised his eyebrows.
“You’ll be able to become strong. No, you already are strong, so continue down this path,” Lee Jun-Kyeong finished.
"I see… This…”
The Hunter bowed again.
Thud!
He saluted once again, his fist clasped within his palm, bowing even further.
"I owe you once again. I will never forget this kindness."
Although he had just said a few words, Guan Yu had seemed to have gained some great enlightenment.
‘You’re going to have to grow even further.’
That didn’t mean that there was much that changed within Guan Yu at that moment, but it would serve as a foundation for his future growth.
"Thank you."
As Guan Yu expressed his gratitude once again, the ship began to rumble.
"What?"
"What's this?"
Before they knew it, the giants began to roar as if they were getting ready for battle.
“Oorah! Oorah!”
"It's a monster!"
At the riverbed below the base of the ship, they could feel the mana emanating from monsters.
Looking over at the other ship, Lee Jun-Kyeong saw that they had already gotten ready for combat.
Shing!!
Guan Yu also prepared for battle, withdrawing a sharp guandao.
Flicker.
Lee Jun-Kyeong looked down at his hand. It had been a long time since he had last drawn Muspel’s Spear.
“Let’s start by catching the monsters for now,” he remarked.
A monster threatening the people and breaking through the ship in the middle of the river would have been a great disaster. Therefore, they would have to take care of them.
“Understood!”
Guan Yu quickly took a stance.
Boom!
Before they knew it, a huge thing burst through the river. As it fell toward the ship, it resembled the tentacle of a giant octopus.
Thud!
Lee Jun-Kyeong kicked off the boat and jumped up, a smile on his lips.
Not only were there giants, but there were also a great number of Hunters, so there was no reason for anyone to get hurt. Furthermore, the monsters didn’t seem to be very strong.
All they amounted to was experience for him!
He hadn’t been able to hunt properly since he had come to the land of the giants, so Lee Jun-Kyeong was hungry for a level-up.
***
Although there were a few crises that had happened along the way, not a single person had been left behind, and not a single issue they couldn’t overcome had occurred.
“We’ve arrived…”
They had arrived in Beijing.
Everyone, including Liu Bei, looked around at their surroundings.
A demolished Beijing.
There wasn’t a single proper building left, and the rubble was covered in ice and snow.
“Chwiiik!”
Even though there were monsters wandering around in the distance, countless people were shedding tears of emotion.
"Beijing..."
"It's Beijing!"
"We’ve arrived…arrived…”
Some were hugging others and shedding tears, while some were just staring blankly at the ruined city.
For some reason, Lee Jun-Kyeong almost felt a little touched.
“Sniff… It’s so touching.”
However, when he saw Jeong In-Chang crying with his nose running, the emotions within him disappeared in an instant.
“Whew…”
Lee Jun-Kyeong left Jeong In-Chang behind and observed the people.
The ruined city.
Having journeyed all the way here, the people had passed through cities they had lived in or cities they had been to. So many people had been indignant and wept at the sights of all of the destroyed and devastated cities.
It had hurt, but things were different here.
Eventually, Liu Bei came forward to the head of the procession and opened his mouth.
“Everyone. Although this is what Beijing may look like now…”
He was also shedding tears as he spoke. It was hard to tell what was going through his mind, whether it was anger or sadness.
But there was one thing that was certain.
“This place will go back to what it used to be.”
The Hunter had hope.
"We will…"
Liu Bei pulled out his sword and lifted it high.
"We will make it! We will survive! We will make it through! Let us make a place for our offspring to survive…!”
The people began to shout at his loud exclamation.
"We can do it!"
"Let's do it!"
"Damn it, let's do this!"
Although the monsters had felt the commotion and approached, the giants gathered together to aid them, keeping the monsters from disturbing them.
“Oorah!”
The people had gathered together, and their words of affirmation spread to become a rallying cry.
“We will survive!”
***
The residents were building structures for immediate shelter using the materials that had been brought by the giants. Lee Jun-Kyeong and Liu Bei looked down from the vantage point of the wreckage of a destroyed building.
“What’s the reason that you have to settle down here?”
Lee Jun-Kyeong carefully brought up a question that he hesitated to ask earlier due to worrying about being rude.
This would mean China’s reconstruction, but choosing this settlement was a very difficult and dangerous path.
“You could have also chosen to survive in another country and return back to your homeland later.”
Furthermore, at this point, where it would be difficult to interact with other countries, their choice to settle meant that China’s civilization would have to revert back decades.
Lee Jun-Kyeong wasn’t saying this because he felt as though Liu Bei was insisting stubbornly on settling down. He was just asking because he wondered why they had decided on such a hard choice.
“I believe in this,” Liu Bei said out of the blue.
“There must be…in this hellish landscape…there must be…”
He looked over at Lee Jun-Kyeong.
“There must be some surviving people somewhere.
He paused before continuing, “If we take these people somewhere, go to Korea or even a different country, then yes, it’s true, we would be able to survive.”
Liu Bei’s voice was firm.
“However, if there are any people alive, how do we know that they aren’t just waiting for protection or even rescue from the state? Therefore, if we go to another country, we would be giving them up.”
“...”
“We’ve tried endlessly. Even in the midst of our hardship in Utgard, we still sent Hunters to search for survivors.”
His countenance soon darkened.
“But…we couldn’t find a place for them to survive in. Although the King of Utgard had been an unbelievable being, we still had tried to bring them there because there was nowhere else for them to go. However, the king still refused.”
“...”
“And as you saw, the city of the Nar…it’s not a place where someone could survive.”
He laughed bitterly.
“We tried so hard, but many of the people we had barely been able to save died. But, there were still some that survived, so…”
Lee Jun-Kyeong stopped reading his expression and instead turned his gaze down toward the beginning of China’s reconstruction.
“I’m going to bring them here. We will rally the survivors and survive. So that no one would forget that China is still a country. So that we will not be brutally robbed of our homeland. Of course…”
Liu Bei continued with a hollow smile.
“Anyone who wants to leave will be able to leave. If that happens… Although I’m ashamed to ask again, I'll have to humbly request your aid again.”
"I'll think about it."
Lee Jun-Kyeong looked back at him, and they both smiled at each other.
1. A four-character poem in Chinese, is the origin of the quote Lee Jun-Kyeong gave.
Beijing.
As the city was at the middle point of the party’s journey to Mt. Baekdu, it wasn’t that far of a trek for the procession.
However, that didn’t mean that it wouldn’t be difficult.
“It’s still as horrifyingly impressive as ever.”
They found themselves back at Qingdao, the city that had been turned into cubes of ice, with a vast river tributary that lay in their path.
Fortunately, Liu Bei hadn’t begun this journey without any preparations.
"Get in!"
As the direct descendant of the previous general secretary, he seemed to know many things about things along the way and many things they could make use of. Ships that hadn’t been there when Lee Jun-Kyeong and his party had passed this area were sitting anchored in the river.
“The Hunters will distribute themselves among the ships, and as for the giants…”
“We will handle our own crossing.”
The giants seemed to have their own method of crossing the river.
Lee Jun-Kyeong and his party also divided themselves among several ships in order to protect the ordinary humans from any possible underwater attacks.
"Fenrir. Are you sleepy?" Lee Jun-Kyeong asked the boy sitting next to him.
"Slee…py…”
After the battle with the king, Fenrir, who had initially slept quite a bit, seemed to fall asleep more frequently and for more extended periods. Lee Jun-Kyeong had a guess as to what had caused the change.
‘Is he undergoing growth?’
The seal must have been slowly releasing, restoring the wolf closer to his incredible might.
Apparently, the wolf was fatigued in order to accommodate that power.
Lee Jun-Kyeong stroked Fenrir's head gently, careful not to disturb his sleep. The boy's long white hair gently shook from Lee Jun-Kyeong’s hand.
Groan!!
Before they knew it, the ship had departed and began to course through the river quickly. While it wasn’t as fast as Fenrir, Lee Jun-Kyeong had no issues with it because this was a much safer path.
“Wow.”
"Oh my God."
"Did the giants really have that ability?”
Then, people were cheering as they looked at the river. Although they had been with the giants for close to two years, this was the first time they had seen this side of the giants.
Boom! Boom!
They were walking through the river.
Regardless of how big they were, they weren’t so large that they could have reached the bottom of the river, so it was a mystery as to how they could walk across the river.
The people cheered in wonder at their appearance.
“It’s Galdr.”
However, Lee Jun-Kyeong knew how they were doing it.
They were using momentary explosions of mana every time they stepped down in the river.
‘I can’t believe that’s even possible.’
Lee Jun-Kyeong had also learned Galdr and also understood its principles, but was very ignorant of the methods to utilize it. Once he saw that there was that sort of a method for usage, his expression got much better.
"Mr. Lee."
"Guan Yu."
Someone approached Lee Jun-Kyeong, and as Jeong In-Chang and Won-Hwa were on different ships, there was only one person on the boat that was able to speak to him.
He nodded in greeting and looked over at the giants.
“It really is amazing."
“...”
The two stood, watching the giants without a word.
Guan Yu looked over at Lee Jun-Kyeong and asked carefully, “How is it that you are so strong?”
The two brothers had followed Liu Bei and came to find Lee Jun-Kyeong in the Nar’s stronghold. At that time, Lee Jun-Kyeong had asked them for a spar, which they had gladly accepted.
However, the results had been disastrous.
They had thought that they would have been able to fight back to some extent, but it had been completely different from before.
They had lost without even being able to last for five minutes against Lee Jun-Kyeong.
“We already knew that you were able to use internal qigong.”
Guan Yu was one of the Chinese Hunters who was able to use internal qigong.
“And…we know that you also know the giant’s Galdr.”
There was something glimmering in Guan Yu’s eyes.
“We also had tried to teach the Nar internal qigong and also learn Galdr ourselves, but at least for the Galdr, we were completely unable to control it. So I would like to become strong.”
Guan Yu saluted Lee Jun-Kyeong, bowing towards him with his fist clasped in his palm.
“Can you tell me your secret?”
Lee Jun-Kyeong responded firmly, "I'm sorry."
"As expected… No, it’s nothing. I overstepped. I’m sorry to have troubled you,” Guan Yu apologized and turned back over to the giants again.
After a moment of awkward silence, Lee Jun-Kyeong piped up, “You most likely won’t be able to learn Galdr. I understood it when I learned it myself. For anyone who’s not me…it’ll be difficult to learn Galdr. It would be the same for you as well, Mr. Guan Yu.”
Lee Jun-Kyeong hadn’t refused just because he didn’t want to tell him.
“Furthermore, Mr. Guan Yu, you won’t need to learn it anyway.”
Lee Jun-Kyeong continued, advising Guan Yu, who aspired to be strong.
“Wasn’t there some Chinese saying or another? All roads lead to one.”
“Wàn liú guī zōng…”
“As long as you train your internal qigong enough, you’ll end up being able to use a skill similar to the Galdr. No…you’ll be able to use something even stronger than that.”
Guan Yu raised his eyebrows.
“You’ll be able to become strong. No, you already are strong, so continue down this path,” Lee Jun-Kyeong finished.
"I see… This…”
The Hunter bowed again.
Thud!
He saluted once again, his fist clasped within his palm, bowing even further.
"I owe you once again. I will never forget this kindness."
Although he had just said a few words, Guan Yu had seemed to have gained some great enlightenment.
‘You’re going to have to grow even further.’
That didn’t mean that there was much that changed within Guan Yu at that moment, but it would serve as a foundation for his future growth.
"Thank you."
As Guan Yu expressed his gratitude once again, the ship began to rumble.
"What?"
"What's this?"
Before they knew it, the giants began to roar as if they were getting ready for battle.
“Oorah! Oorah!”
"It's a monster!"
At the riverbed below the base of the ship, they could feel the mana emanating from monsters.
Looking over at the other ship, Lee Jun-Kyeong saw that they had already gotten ready for combat.
Shing!!
Guan Yu also prepared for battle, withdrawing a sharp guandao.
Flicker.
Lee Jun-Kyeong looked down at his hand. It had been a long time since he had last drawn Muspel’s Spear.
“Let’s start by catching the monsters for now,” he remarked.
A monster threatening the people and breaking through the ship in the middle of the river would have been a great disaster. Therefore, they would have to take care of them.
“Understood!”
Guan Yu quickly took a stance.
Boom!
Before they knew it, a huge thing burst through the river. As it fell toward the ship, it resembled the tentacle of a giant octopus.
Thud!
Lee Jun-Kyeong kicked off the boat and jumped up, a smile on his lips.
Not only were there giants, but there were also a great number of Hunters, so there was no reason for anyone to get hurt. Furthermore, the monsters didn’t seem to be very strong.
All they amounted to was experience for him!
He hadn’t been able to hunt properly since he had come to the land of the giants, so Lee Jun-Kyeong was hungry for a level-up.
***
Although there were a few crises that had happened along the way, not a single person had been left behind, and not a single issue they couldn’t overcome had occurred.
“We’ve arrived…”
They had arrived in Beijing.
Everyone, including Liu Bei, looked around at their surroundings.
A demolished Beijing.
There wasn’t a single proper building left, and the rubble was covered in ice and snow.
“Chwiiik!”
Even though there were monsters wandering around in the distance, countless people were shedding tears of emotion.
"Beijing..."
"It's Beijing!"
"We’ve arrived…arrived…”
Some were hugging others and shedding tears, while some were just staring blankly at the ruined city.
For some reason, Lee Jun-Kyeong almost felt a little touched.
“Sniff… It’s so touching.”
However, when he saw Jeong In-Chang crying with his nose running, the emotions within him disappeared in an instant.
“Whew…”
Lee Jun-Kyeong left Jeong In-Chang behind and observed the people.
The ruined city.
Having journeyed all the way here, the people had passed through cities they had lived in or cities they had been to. So many people had been indignant and wept at the sights of all of the destroyed and devastated cities.
It had hurt, but things were different here.
Eventually, Liu Bei came forward to the head of the procession and opened his mouth.
“Everyone. Although this is what Beijing may look like now…”
He was also shedding tears as he spoke. It was hard to tell what was going through his mind, whether it was anger or sadness.
But there was one thing that was certain.
“This place will go back to what it used to be.”
The Hunter had hope.
"We will…"
Liu Bei pulled out his sword and lifted it high.
"We will make it! We will survive! We will make it through! Let us make a place for our offspring to survive…!”
The people began to shout at his loud exclamation.
"We can do it!"
"Let's do it!"
"Damn it, let's do this!"
Although the monsters had felt the commotion and approached, the giants gathered together to aid them, keeping the monsters from disturbing them.
“Oorah!”
The people had gathered together, and their words of affirmation spread to become a rallying cry.
“We will survive!”
***
The residents were building structures for immediate shelter using the materials that had been brought by the giants. Lee Jun-Kyeong and Liu Bei looked down from the vantage point of the wreckage of a destroyed building.
“What’s the reason that you have to settle down here?”
Lee Jun-Kyeong carefully brought up a question that he hesitated to ask earlier due to worrying about being rude.
This would mean China’s reconstruction, but choosing this settlement was a very difficult and dangerous path.
“You could have also chosen to survive in another country and return back to your homeland later.”
Furthermore, at this point, where it would be difficult to interact with other countries, their choice to settle meant that China’s civilization would have to revert back decades.
Lee Jun-Kyeong wasn’t saying this because he felt as though Liu Bei was insisting stubbornly on settling down. He was just asking because he wondered why they had decided on such a hard choice.
“I believe in this,” Liu Bei said out of the blue.
“There must be…in this hellish landscape…there must be…”
He looked over at Lee Jun-Kyeong.
“There must be some surviving people somewhere.
He paused before continuing, “If we take these people somewhere, go to Korea or even a different country, then yes, it’s true, we would be able to survive.”
Liu Bei’s voice was firm.
“However, if there are any people alive, how do we know that they aren’t just waiting for protection or even rescue from the state? Therefore, if we go to another country, we would be giving them up.”
“...”
“We’ve tried endlessly. Even in the midst of our hardship in Utgard, we still sent Hunters to search for survivors.”
His countenance soon darkened.
“But…we couldn’t find a place for them to survive in. Although the King of Utgard had been an unbelievable being, we still had tried to bring them there because there was nowhere else for them to go. However, the king still refused.”
“...”
“And as you saw, the city of the Nar…it’s not a place where someone could survive.”
He laughed bitterly.
“We tried so hard, but many of the people we had barely been able to save died. But, there were still some that survived, so…”
Lee Jun-Kyeong stopped reading his expression and instead turned his gaze down toward the beginning of China’s reconstruction.
“I’m going to bring them here. We will rally the survivors and survive. So that no one would forget that China is still a country. So that we will not be brutally robbed of our homeland. Of course…”
Liu Bei continued with a hollow smile.
“Anyone who wants to leave will be able to leave. If that happens… Although I’m ashamed to ask again, I'll have to humbly request your aid again.”
"I'll think about it."
Lee Jun-Kyeong looked back at him, and they both smiled at each other.
1. A four-character poem in Chinese, is the origin of the quote Lee Jun-Kyeong gave.
